| 8 September 2010 |
| Busan to host global gathering of Christians in 2013 |
SEOUL (APEN) – The Reverend Park Jong-wha, ecumenical leader and Presbyterian Church minister, hopes that the 10th assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in October 2013 in Busan (also known as Pusan) will be a chance for unity between the two Koreas.
|
Speaking to an English daily here on 28 September, the Reverend Park said that he will invite “brothers and sisters” from the North to attend the assembly, the first to be held in a northeast Asian country.
He said that church leaders from North Korea will take part in the assembly though North Korea is not a member of the WCC, an ecumenical fellowship of churches.
Some 349 Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican churches in 140 nations, representing about 560 million Christians are members of the Geneva based WCC, which was founded in 1948.
A thanksgiving service, organized by the Preparatory
Committee for Korea’s Bid to Host the WCC Assembly was held here on 16 September.
It was followed by a time of celebration, which was attended by more than 1,000 people from different Korean churches.
Representatives of the government, including the chairman of the Korean Congress, the chief justice of the Supreme Court and the prime minister attended the event.
The WCC central committee on 31 August chose Busan as the venue for the 10th Assembly in 2013.
Busan, on the southeastern corner of the Korean peninsula, is the second largest city in South Korea with more than 4 million people. An international airport offers connections throughout Korea and most of eastern Asia, as well as Hawaii and other locations in the Pacific.
The assembly, which makes decisions and policies of the WCC is held every seven years.
“A beachfront location, an opportunity to be a witness for peace and reconciliation, and a commitment to engage the breadth of the region’s church community as widely as possible: these are among the features those attending the World Council of Churches’ 10th Assembly in Busan, South Korea can expect,” a WCC media release said.
|
|
